TADA Court convicts ''close confidant'' of Tiger Memon

Mumbai, Oct 17 (UNI) The designated TADA Court in Mumbai today convicted three blast accused, including a close confidant of prime absconding accused, 'Tiger Memon' for their involvement in the 1993 serial Mumbai bomb blasts.

The three convicts are Syed Abdul Rehman, a close confidant of Tiger Memon, Manoj Kumar Gupta, and Mohammad Kasim Lajpurya. TADA Judge P D Kode pronounced them guilty of helping Tiger Memon and his associates with the landing of the arms and ammunation at Dighi, a costal area in Maharashtra.

It is pertinent to note here that Syed Abdul Rehman, who was accused number 28 in the trial was specifically termed as a ''close confidant'' of Tiger Memon, by TADA Judge P D Kode.

The Court found him guilty for participating in the landing and transportation of arms and explosives at Didgi and Shekadi, coastal regions of Maharashtra.

It is worth mentioning here that in the course of the delivery of his judgement, Judge Kode noted that though Syed was involved in the conspiracy of the serial blasts, he had not actively participated in them.

While convicting Syed, the Court relied on his confessional statement and also the statements of the co-accused, in which they have named Syed and described the role played by him. The statements corroborated each other.

Another accused Manoj Kumar Gupta was convicted for the landing of the arms and disposing off of the arms and ammunation at Naglabunder creek in Thane.

He was however, acquitted from the charge of participating in the weapons training camp at Bhorgat village in Sandhgri district, in Maharashtra.

Manoj was also convicted under the Arms Act. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which had probed the blast case had raided Manoj's hide-out and recovered two pistols, one revolver and one country-made fire-arm.

He was also held guilty for throwing 59 bags of RDX in the Naglabunder creek in Thane.

While convicting Manoj, the Court observed that the confessional statement of the accused, the co-accused, and the chemical analysers report, conclusively prove the guilt of the accused.

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